[Sca-cooks] What is "Janete"?

[Robin Carroll-Mann]

On Thu, Aug 26, 2010 at 9:02 PM, James Prescott
<prescotj at telusplanet.net> wrote:

> If Old French, it is one alternative spelling of "Yellow", and so could
> be the normal shorthand for "Yellow Sauce" (the word "Sauce" being
> omitted in cookbooks such as Viandier, for example).  If Yellow Sauce,
> then likely it would have saffron.

Ruperto de Nola presents three recipes for "janet" or "janete"
(depending on whether you are reading a Catalan or Spanish edition of
his cookbook.  In my translation, they are recipes 20-22.
http://www.florilegium.org/files/FOOD-MANUSCRIPTS/Guisados1-art.html

There are also recipes for "janet" in the 15th c. Catalan cookbook,
the "Libre de Sent Sovi".  Editor and scholar Rudolf Grewe says that
"janet" probably refers to the yellow color that the saffron would
give the dish, and that the word is probably derived from the French
"jaunnet".

I'm sorry I didn't identify "janet" earlier, but I was replying to
Suey's question, and I knew she was familiar with the recipe.

And I really should put that information in a footnote in my
translation, along with half a dozen other changes and additions...

Brighid ni Chiarain